Audio 3:19
Barbs fly as pressure mounts on Johns to appear

Stewards say the former NRL player Andrew Johns has one more chance to face an inquiry into the poor performance of the prized mare, More Joyous.

Transcript

TONY EASTLEY: The barbs are continuing to fly in the feud between racing identities Gai Waterhouse and John Singleton after yesterday's acrimonious stewards hearing where Mrs Waterhouse labelled Mr Singleton as being an absolute sham.

Meanwhile pressure is mounting on a key player in the saga - the former NRL star Andrew Johns - to spell out exactly what he was told about John Singleton's champion mare, More Joyous, before a big race at Randwick last month.

As John Singleton came under fire at yesterday's stewards hearing from Gai Waterhouse who labelled him as old and a drunk, one of his allies jumped to Mr Singleton's defence.

Lexi Metherell reports.

LEXI METHERELL: Despite the requests of stewards, the former NRL star Andrew Johns was a no-show at yesterday's hearing. He's the one John Singleton alleges had inside information about his horse, More Joyous, from bookmaker Tom Waterhouse. Racing NSW stewards are now giving Johns one more chance to appear or potentially face sanctions.

CHRIS MURPHY: The situation now is that Andrew Johns has put himself in an impossible situation.

LEXI METHERELL: Gai Waterhouse - who trained More Joyous - denies discussing the health of the mare with her son Tom.

Lawyer Chris Murphy was at the hearing yesterday. He once represented John Singleton and says Andrew Johns holds the key to who said what.

CHRIS MURPHY: And I think that if Tom Waterhouse and Singo are serious they should both hope that Andrew Johns would get into a witness box and be cross-examined and tell the truth.

LEXI METHERELL: According to John Singleton a few days after More Joyous flopped at Randwick, the league star arrived at his place agitated and dishevelled. He says Johns was petrified he'd become collateral damage, that he'd be sacked as a commentator by Channel Nine while the network's bookie/commentator Tom Waterhouse would remain a lucrative asset.

CHRIS MURPHY: Why would you tell the owner of a horse that the trainer's bookmaker son told you that the horse couldn't win, it had problems - and just by chance the horse did have problems?

LEXI METHERELL: Yesterday's hearing culminated with Gai Waterhouse labelling her old friend John Singleton a sham. He'd been caught in a game of "Chinese whispers" she said, spread by "a brothel owner, a footballer" and a "trumped up little jockey".

That jockey is Allan Robinson who's represented by Chris Murphy, no friend of the Waterhouse clan.

CHRIS MURPHY: The snobbery, you know, of "racing's royal family" accolades they shower upon themselves - they turn me sick.

LEXI METHERELL: Allan Robinson was the one who alerted Mr Singleton to what Andrew Johns had said. But Chris Murphy says his client 's too unwell to face the stress of the inquiry.

CHRIS MURPHY: He drove all over New South Wales for trainers like Gai Waterhouse, burning his riding fee doing it. He punctured his lung, he broke his neck and eventually he broke his back and suffered a brain injury. And for that, for a trainer to look down on him, even the word "little" jockey - as though they're some superior form of life that trains horses. Gai is a failed actress who married a perjurer.

LEXI METHERELL: The inquiry's been adjourned. A spokesman for Andrew Johns did not confirm if his client would appear.